National socialist family law : the influence of national socialism on marriage and divorce law in Germany and the Netherlands

To which extent has the marriage and divorce law in Germany and the Netherlands in the period 1933-1945 been influenced by the national socialist range of ideas? To answer this question, extensive research has among others been conducted in the archives of the NIOD. The marriage and divorce law was used by the Nazis to build their Thousand Year Aryan Reich. For this purpose, many Aryan children and as few as possible half-Jewish children had to be born. Therefore, the Nazis, both in Germany and the Netherlands, tried to change the rules regarding marriage and divorce, among others forbidding marriages between Aryans and Jews. Also the divorce law was liberalized, allowing marriages in which it was unlikely that children would still be born, to be dissolved more easily. However, the final conclusion is that the Nazis indeed made many changes in the marriage and divorce law, but that this law never became entirely national-socialist.